Open thread: Netanyahu speaks to Congress; Update: Live video added

posted at 11:12 am on May 24, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

While Barack Obama tours the UK, Congress gets to hear from another head of state, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. After lecturing the US President on the history and issues of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Netanyahu will deliver his vision of a settlement on Capitol Hill:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would set forth his view of a future Middle East peace in an address to Congress on Tuesday and reaffirmed Israel would never return to its old, narrow borders.

“I will outline a vision for a secure Israeli-Palestinian peace,” the right-wing Israeli leader said on Monday about his planned address to a joint meeting of Congress.

“I intend to speak the unvarnished truth. Now more than ever what we need is clarity.”

The speech will start shortly, and can be seen at C-SPAN. What will Netanyahu have to say, and how will it be received? Let’s open up the comments to get your feedback.
Update: Here’s the live video:

Update II: I removed the video code. The speech went very well for Netanyahu, I believe. He offered a perfect riposte to hecklers who interrupted him early, saying that “[y]ou can’t have real protests in the farcical parliaments of Tehran or Tripoli. This is real democracy.” It was a great ad-lib, and it led directly into one of his major themes, which was that Israel was the true beacon of liberty in the Middle East, the only place where Arabs enjoy real freedom (although some might quibble with that claim these days with Iraq in mind).

Netanyahu took great care to offer gracious compliments to Obama throughout the speech. However, he made it clear that Israel will not be returning to the 1967 border, a suggestion that Obama broached and then almost immediately backpedaled from over the last few days. Netanyahu also emphatically rejected negotiations with Hamas while it still includes in its charter the goal of Israel’s destruction and the command to “kill the Jews wherever they are found.” He called upon Mahmoud Abbas to renege on his partnership with Hamas, which Netanyahu called the Palestinian version of al-Qaeda.

Some said this would be the speech of a lifetime for Netanyahu. If so, he delivered in spectacular fashion.

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Israel, which enjoys strong bipartisan backing in Congress, has been rattled by President Barack Obama’s support for drawing the future borders of a Palestinian state and a Jewish state on the basis of Israel’s pre-1967 war frontiers. Obama has also called for a full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, something that Netanyahu said is possible only in the very long term.

Obama has not called for a return to the exact borders that Israel held before capturing east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War of June 1967. He, like the Palestinians, is open to land swaps so Israel can hold on to settlements it built after the 1967 war. Obama has not, however, offered proposals for how to return the two sides to the bargaining table. The Palestinians are refusing to come back as long as Israeli settlement construction continues.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the Joint Session of Congress on Tuesday was disrupted by a left-wing protester calling to stop the Israeli occupation in Palestine. The heckler was identified as Rae Abileah, a 28-year-old Jewish-American activist, of Israeli decent, who works with human rights organization CODEPINK. Abileah stood up from the gallery as Netanyahu was congratulating the United States for the killing of Osama bin Laden and shouted “stop Israeli war crimes.”

-snip-

In a statement released shortly after the incident, CODEPINK said “Prime Minister Netanyahu says that the 1967 borders are indefensible. But what is really indefensible is the occupation of land, the starvation of Gaza, the jailing of dissenters and the lack of equal rights in the alleged Israeli democracy. As a Jew and an American taxpayer, I can’t be silent when these crimes are being committed in my name and with my tax money.”

I find that disturbing as well. Why would MSNBC for example carry each and every f*rt erupting from this a**hole’s mouth, especially after the way he arrogantly and disdainfully lectured our President last week? You would think it was Winston Churchill addressing Congress and asking for the US to intervene in World War II. How many foreign dignitaries get their entire speech covered like this? It seems to me that, on the contrary, any foreign visitors get cut off by the cable news channels after just one or two sentences when they give a speech. I strongly support Israel’s right to exist. I value their democracy and, from what I’ve heard, most Israelis have strong democratic values and are to the left of this POS Netanyahu. I don’t understand why Israel keeps electing the most extreme right wing fanatics to their government like this Likudnik filth. And I don’t understand why this extremist gets such a prominent platform on national television in America. I don’t understand it.

Isn’t it crazy that the Left doesn’t seem to realize what it is like for very small Israel to be surrounded by countries that want them destroyed? Just another item on a list of things they seem to be clueless about.

Isn’t it crazy that the Left doesn’t seem to realize what it is like for very small Israel to be surrounded by countries that want them destroyed? Just another item on a list of things they seem to be clueless about.

Cindy Munford on May 24, 2011 at 3:11 PM

I was just about to say something very similar. He says he doesn’t understand why Israel elected Likud. He doesn’t understand period!

I was stuck in mediation all day. Does anyone have a link for the full speech? I can’t find one due to MSM supression techniques, likely at the hand of the new “You cain’t touch Obama on the Blogs Czar”

Bibi was born on October 21, 1949. I am EXACTLY 21 years younger.
I Like sharing my birthday with Bibi the Great!

annoyinglittletwerp on May 24, 2011 at 11:57 AM

Omigosh, isn’t that crackpot who called for endtimes on May 21 not positioning it to October 21? We are doomed with these significant days of reckoning. Meanwhile A-jad in Iran says that the 12th imam, the Mahdi, is to make his covert appearance on June 5. What is the world coming to?

Netanyahu took great care to offer gracious compliments to Obama throughout the speech. However, he made it clear that Israel will not be returning to the 1967 border, a suggestion that Obama broached and then almost immediately backpedaled from over the last few days.